Incubus Incursion: The Grasp of Perdition (2024)

The Grasp of Perdition marks the point of full descent in the Incubus Incursion triptych. What began as a whisper has become possession. The divine figures, once radiant with light, are now pulled into the infernal.

⤷ Here, movement dominates. The canvas erupts in spirals of fabric, hair, and writhing limbs. The composition draws from Baroque dynamism but turns it violent. The figures twist as if caught in a current too powerful to resist. Their pale flesh glows against the encroaching black tendrils that bind them, while a shadowed male form looms behind—a presence both human and other.

This is the moment where grace collapses into panic. The angels’ innocence curdles into horror; their wings no longer lift but entangle. I wanted the painting to feel claustrophobic, as if the viewer is witnessing sanctity being swallowed whole. Every figure screams upward, but the composition pulls downward.

The palette burns from gold to rust, the warmth of heaven consumed by the heat of damnation. Light no longer illuminates—it scorches.

In the context of The Damnation Project, The Grasp of Perdition explores spiritual invasion, the suffocation that follows surrender. It is not just about physical capture but the corrosion of belief itself.